March 26, 2004
A member of the University of Iowa rowing team, Emily Wagstrom, a junior from Faribault, Minnesota, has been added to the McLeodUSA StarHawks team.
“Emily Wagstrom is truly a ‘star’ Hawk in every way,” said UI Head Coach Mandi Kowal. “She is positive, hard-working, determined and intelligent. These qualities make her one of the best student-athletes to come through our program. She is just an outstanding individual. Emily is one of the most mature student-athletes I have ever worked with during my career as a coach.”
Wagstrom came to the University of Iowa with impressive credentials as an athlete, a student and a person. She participated in track and field, swimming and basketball in high school, and captained teams in all three sports. She was the conference champion in swimming for six years, and an all-state and academic all-American in swimming. She was also class valedictorian, senior class president and National Honors Society president, and participated in orchestra.
Wagstrom joined the novice rowing team in the fall of 2001 and has, according to Kowal, “been a leader at Iowa” ever since.
During the 2002-03 season, Wagstrom was a member of the 2V8+ that placed second at the Big Ten Championships, that defeated Duke, SMU and Texas at the Longhorn Invitational, and that defeated Kansas State, Clemson, Minnesota and Wisconsin over the course of the season.
Back surgery on March 9 of this year has taken her out of the boat, but she continues to do everything she can to remain a connected and valuable member of the team. “Emily always has the ability to see the big picture and what’s best for the rowing program,” Kowal said. “I can’t tell you how eager I am to have her back in the boat after a successful healing process.”
An exercise science major, Wagstrom is an academic all-Big Ten and Dean’s List student and a member of the Iowa Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a group of student-athletes from each of the UI’s varsity sports programs who help to shape departmental policies and procedures and to initiate department-wide outreach programs.
“You have to get to know Emily personally to really understand the kind of impressive young woman she is,” said Kowal., “Only then can you appreciate that I am telling the absolute truth when I say she truly is a ‘star’ Hawk.”
The StarHawks program is an initiative funded in part by McLeodUSA, a leading telecommunications company with corporate headquarters in Cedar Rapids and a long-time member of the UI’s Partners in Excellence corporate sponsorship program. The StarHawks team is a collection of student-athletes at the University of Iowa who truly represent the very best the intercollegiate athletics program at the UI has to offer. StarHawks typically excel athletically and academically, and also are active in community or leadership activities.